well since everyone was so helpful regarding my rifle question, i thought i would thow out a question regarding caliber and recoil :).

assuming i go with the kimber 84M Montana, that narrows my caliber choices. when i embarked on this mission, I did *lots* of research on the different calibers and felt pretty settled on the .308. but then the .260 caught my eye. it seemed like a very effective caliber with perhaps a bit less recoil. the reason i started thinking about recoil was because the 84M is quite a light rifle - just a hair of 5 lb. unscoped.

the .260 isnt much worse than a .243 which isnt much of anything, and the .308 is a touch more than the 7-08 which is also not much for recoil, anything that shoots a 6.5mm bullet is very effective, with that 140gr bullet you get a very high sectional density and ballistic coefficiant, higher than the 180gr .308 bullet will have, nice thing is that if you need brass its not to hard to make some .260 brass if you buy some .243 or 7-08 brass run it through the sizer die and your ready to go. im not a .308 fan i like almost all .30 cal rifles but any .308 is almost as bad as any .270, so im biased in saying take the .260, but im only one man's idea its your call

the .260 isnt much worse than a .243 which isnt much of anything, and the .308 is a touch more than the 7-08 which is also not much for recoil, anything that shoots a 6.5mm bullet is very effective, with that 140gr bullet you get a very high sectional density and ballistic coefficiant, higher than the 180gr .308 bullet will have, nice thing is that if you need brass its not to hard to make some .260 brass if you buy some .243 or 7-08 brass run it through the sizer die and your ready to go. im not a .308 fan i like almost all .30 cal rifles but any .308 is almost as bad as any .270, so im biased in saying take the .260, but im only one man's idea its your call

thank's for that pyro. i definitely want to get into reloading too. seems like a lot of fun.

I've got a Remington 700 Mountain LSS in 260 and a 700 Wood ADL in 308. The 260 has much less recoil with 140's than the 308 with 180's. The 260 unscoped weighs 6 1/2 pounds and the 308, 7 1/4 pounds. I use the 308 with open sights so to make it more comfortable to shoot I added a Pachmayr recoil pad and mercury recoil reducers. It helped allot although the reducers added about a pound to the total weight. The pad alone made it tolerable compared to the traditional hard plastic butt that comes with the Wood ADL but the reducers made it more comfortable and increased my confidence/accuracy. With the Kimber 84M at about 5#'s unscoped and it's standard Pachmayr pad I'd go for the 260 hands down. It will be much sweeter shooting. Here's pictures of my 260 and 308. First the 260:

I've got a Remington 700 Mountain LSS in 260 and a 700 Wood ADL in 308. The 260 has much less recoil with 140's than the 308 with 180's....With the Kimber 84M at about 5#'s unscoped and it's standard Pachmayr pad I'd go for the 260 hands down. It will be much sweeter shooting.

Thank you timber! That helps me out greatly! Very nice looking rifles, by the way.

Yeah, I was trying to be a little artistic with silk. It helps to distract from the average quality of the pictures from my little Cannon digital camera. I actually got the idea from Ken Lunde's fantastic handgun pictures - he uses blue satin. But mainly I really appreciate pictures of others' guns so I did some too.

You're right Dale, it comes down to numbers and the 308 has more energy and therefore more recoil. And that gets amplified with lighter weight guns like the Kimber 84M which at 5#'s is light. Before I made changes to the Rem 700 ADL 308 it was unpleasant to shoot and it weighed about 7 1/4 pounds unscoped.

Here's a small, 60# Wild Hog I took last weekend with the 308. It was a standing, unsupported shot at about 30 yards around 20 minutes after Sunset. I need to upgrade the sights as I had trouble seeing them as dark approached. Any suggestions? Sorry about the size - I'm having trouble with Photobucket.

The flip side of the deal is how easy is availibility of ammo, and how costly is the .260 ammo compared to the .308

There are a lot of places you just cant buy a box of .260 cartridges but very few places you cant buy .308. If you load and stockpile the components it is less of a problem but there is something to be said for availablity of ammo.

Edited by Urimaginaryfrnd - May/02/2008 at 20:51

"Always do the right thing, just because it is the right thing to do".Bobby Paul DohertyTexas Ranger

Hello Jeff. Forgot I had a Bright Sights paint kit stashed away, ha ha. The problems of aging never end. Anyway I put a first coat on tonight - it should help.

I buy allot of ammo on-line and never have problems getting 260. Also Remington has added a fourth offering of 260 ammo in conjuction with the 2008 Special Addition CDL SF which is in 260 Rem! Check it out.

I owned two Browning A-Bolt rifles in .260 and .308. I have since sold the .260 (big regret) but still have the .308. In my experience, the .260 recoil is noticably less than the .308 but that is not to say that the .308 is a beast. The .260 is just a very comfortable round to shoot in a lightweight rifle, even for those who are "recoil sensitive."

I like shooting 168gr. AMAX bullets out of the .308 atop 44gr. Varget for deer & hogs. There is a kick but nothing even close to, say, a 150gr. bullet coming out of a 30/06.

I owned two Browning A-Bolt rifles in .260 and .308. I have since sold the .260 (big regret) but still have the .308. In my experience, the .260 recoil is noticably less than the .308 but that is not to say that the .308 is a beast. The .260 is just a very comfortable round to shoot in a lightweight rifle, even for those who are "recoil sensitive."

I like shooting 168gr. AMAX bullets out of the .308 atop 44gr. Varget for deer & hogs. There is a kick but nothing even close to, say, a 150gr. bullet coming out of a 30/06.

That is well put. I'd agree the 308 is no beast but in a light rifle, like a Kimber 84M, it's no fun.

Too bad you sold that 260. A-Bolts are on the light side but I'd bet that was a sweet shooter.

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